Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories
Copyright (c) 1993 by Hope/Sarge, This file may be redistributed electronicly only if the follwoing two conditions are met: (1) This copyright is retained with the file and (2) that you make no further restrictions on resdistribution.
Who's Sari now?
I first met Rani in combined Graduate/Undergraduate Seminar on Computative Algorithms (my introduction to computing, before that I was a Math Major and only biding my time in school until I was a Junior to Join ROTC and work towards a commission). This was about 6 or 8 months after my New Yorker decided that she could no longer stand the Left Coast, and had to return to the hustle of New York. Rani was about as different from my New Yorker as any woman could be. Although she was tall for an Indian (almost 5'7") she was still much shorter than me. Her hair was long and black, and it always hung silkily down her back to her waist. Her figure was full, almost Rubenesque. Her eyes were dark pools that sucked your soul into them to drown in their depths. Her complexion was the most beautiful shade of olive that I had ever seen. Her lips were perfect, neither too full, nor too thin. Her nose suited her face like it was made for it. In short she was perfect. Unfortunately she was a Graduate student, and probably wouldn't have a thought of even talking to some lowly undergrad...
Well I wouldn't have mentioned her if that was the case. The class was one of those 'consent of the instructor' which translated to 'by invitation only' for undergrads and to 'you will take it' for graduate students. It was used as a filter for those undergrads that the Powers-that-be thought would make good grad students. Any way Rani and I ended up on the same project (something relatively trivial for an accomplished programmer but a fairly big deal for both of us, as I was just learning how to program, and she just didn't have the mind set to really be a programmer). What with one thing and another we ended up basicly living in each others pockets for several weeks, and eventually without either one of us trying very hard, in bed together.
Well, we hit it off like a pair of minks, my GPA dropped at least point, hers even more (and you know what that means to a Graduate Student). Eventually she moved in with me (but kept her dorm room too, for appearances' sake). At one point I actually asked her to marry me, but she pointed out that I was totally unacceptable to her parents and that while I was quite good enought for her, it wouldn't really work in the long run. Ah well, it's better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.
One game that we liked to play, and the one that probably ate deepest into our communal GPA, was a sort of 'quid pro quo' or I tie you, you tie me. She was the limberest person that I ever met in my life. I'd bet dollars to donuts that she could out escape Harry Houdini (at least on one of his off nights). I'd tie her up, and I'm no slouch with knots, ad turn my back and poof she'd be free. So every time that I'd tie her up, if she escaped she'd return the favor, if she didn't I couldn't use that particular tie again. Naturally she wouldn't escape while I was watching her, but would wait until I left the room, or turned my back. So I would bind her tightly and then play with her wabbly bits (tm) until she was exhausted, that at least would slow her down somewhat.
One night she seemed a bit pensive over dinner, and after we had cleaned up the kitchen she said to me, "now it is time for some fun with ropes". So I proceeded to try out my latest idea for securing her. I placed her in the formal dining room chair (the only one in that totally mismatched house), high back, arms, heavy, dark wood. I tied her arms around the back of the chair, each arm to the opposite side, then her elbows to the slats on the back. Her ankles were tied to the back legs and her knees to the arms. Carefully I opened her blouse and pulled up her skirt (oh I forgot to mention, she never wore pants, ever) and down her panties. Several minutes of nuzzling, licking and sucking on her nipples soon produced the desired result, more manipulation of the other wobbly bit finished her off (I thought). I left her post-orgasming and went to wash up and make a little snack for us both. Before I even finished washing my hands her arms wrapped around my waist. "Got you" was all that she said. Ah well I thought, my turn again (little did I know).
She led me back to the chair, all the ropes were still attached to it, and sat me down. Quickly she tied me in almost exactly the same way that I had tied her. Then she said, "Now you will be attempting to escape", and walked into the bedroom. As I struggled unsuccessfully with my bindings I heard her opening and closing drawers, the closet and a suitcase, I wondered, idlely, what she was up to. After about 15 minutes she returned from the bedroom wearing a red and gold sari. Brother, was she a sight, she had made up her face fairly heavily, with very dark eye-pencil all around her eyes, a dark red cast mark was between her eyebrows with a small golden star above it dangling from three golden chains to her hair. From a earring a thin chain crossed her face to a golden ring that pierced her left nostril. Golden chains by the dozens hung around her neck over a dark red, almost maroon blouse. Her Sari was a bright red with a golden scroll pattern along the border. To put it simply she was breathtaking. In her had was a long pale yellow scarf. She had a very serious expression on her face.
She started to tell me about her Astrologer back in India, how sometimes she would call her and say things like, "Be very careful getting on the train at Rajnipoor" or "watch for cars tomorrow" and there would almost be an accident. And how one day she had called her and said, "I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, but your brother will die this afternoon", and that evening an Officer from her brothers regiment came by and told her and her mother that her brother had been shot by a sniper, up in Kashmir and that he was dead. All the while she's walking around me, dragging the scarf across my body, wrapping it around my head and slipping it off, sliding it around my neck, and fiddling with it. Eventually she fiddled with it so much that there were two large knots in it, about 6 inches apart.
Then she says, "You know, nobody at school knows that we are living together, but she called me, here, this afternoon, and told me something very strange. She said that 'This evening you will strangle a man, hang a woman and then hang yourself.'". With that she whipped the scarf around my neck, and pulled it tight. "I wonder which woman I will be hanging? Good-bye my love, it has been fun." And with that she pulled on the ends of the scarf.
"Gaa...". Silence, not a sound from my gasping mouth as the heavy silk cut off all air. The knots pressed on the side of my neck, in seconds my vision tunneled in and I faded away with the thought "Oh shit"...
And then faded back awake. I was still bound to the chair, Rani was kissing me and saying, "Oh, do wake up dear".
"Gack cough," I choked, "What was that all about?"
"Well my astrologer said that there would be no deaths unless I tried to avoid the actions that She had forseen so I chose you to be the man, now I must find a willing woman and well... I was looking into your other footlocker (figures she's a escape artist, what price a cheap Master combination padlock) and I know that you have women's clothing in your size there, do you sometimes dress as a woman?"
"Well, sometimes I do, for special occasions".
"I thought as much, will you be my next victim too? Please? I can think of no other person to use." Well to make a long story short after not a whole lot of wheedling she talked me into it.
She smiled very widely, "I had something made for you as a special surprise, now it will come in handy". With that she began to untie me.
"What was with that scarf that you used on me?"
"Oh, that was the same knot as used by the thuggee, you know who they were?"
"Yes, I think so, weren't they worshipers of Shiva the Destroyer?"
"Well yes, but they only worshiped one facet of Shiva, who is also the Creator". By now I was free, we went into the bedroom on the bed was another Sari, this one was Sapphire Blue, with a sky blue blouse. There was a makeup kit, and a small box of silver and pearl jewelry. Also there were my female underthings, bra, girdle but no waist cinchers (well a Sari leaves the midrift uncovered).
"Please take off your clothing", she said, and with that began my transformation into an Indian woman. I never realised just how simple a Sari is. After getting on all of the usual stuff, (bra, panties, breast forms) she sat me down and applied the eye makeup, heavy eye-pencil around the eyes to outline them, a paste on 'cast mark', lipstick. Then the blouse, like a short tee shirt, with snaps up the back, round neckline, very snug fitting, she called it a 'choli'. The sleeves came to just above my elbow. The Sari consists of about 10 yards of silk cloth, at the bottom edge is sew a panel of heavy fabric to stiffen that section. The top is heavily pleated (so that there is room in the bottom for the wearer to walk). You put on a half slip, with a thin rope for a waistband, after the skirt is wrapped around your waist, starting at the right side, and wrapping towards the left, about six times, it is tucked under the waistband of the slip and pinned into the itself on the left side, and then taken around the back once more, them up and over the left shoulder (where it is pinned with a broach), the remainder hangs down the back most of the way to the ground to balance the rest, or is lifted over the head to protect you from the sun.
The she sat me down again and got out my black wig (you remember that wig don't you). She placed it on my head and pinned it firmly into place. A quick touch of lipstick and the she turned me to the mirror. I was quite surprised at how I looked (you may wish to read 'My_turn' for my feelings about the looks of my female persona).
"Just sit here for a few moments please, I'll be right back".
As I sat there my thoughts turned to the 'Indian' mind, now I realize that this is generalization, and many Indians don't feel this way, But...
India is a land of great mysticism, (this is why the English had so little friction with their colonial policies [compare the history of India under the British with any other colonial powers colony, India was, on the whole, content under the Raj] they are romantics, I shudder to think what would have happened had say Imperial Russia, another land of mystics, ended up with India as a Colony. The Russians and Indians would have been at each others throats constantly, mainly over religious matters. By the way- it is not as unlikely as you think for Russia to have had India as one might think, A little poorer Generalship in the Crimea on the part of the British, a few breaks falling the other way, and the French and British could have lost, soundly, the Crimean War. This would have eventually lead to the fall of the Ottoman empire in the 1860's and control of the Eastern Mediterranean by Russia... But I digress. Indian mysticism leads to strange, unexplainable things happening. The Indian rope trick is NOT a trick, why do you think that Henry Wiess (Harry Houdini) spent several years in India?
As these thoughs were wandering through my mind I was rummaging through my footlocker, finally finding my highest heels, the 5 inchers, with ankle straps. No sooner had I put them on, and was practicing walking in heels and a Sari, when Rani came back into the room.
"Oha, take those silly heels off, Indian women of breeding never wear them." The she muttered under her breath, "You are lucky that I'm not turning you into some splayfooted peasant woman, great with child".
"Huh?"
"It is nothing, come over to me now".
In the living room there was incense burning in holders and a tape of Indian music was playing softly on my tape deck.
She had me put my wrists together behind my back. "We do not want you touching things, it may spoil the effect", she said as she tightly bound my wrists and then elbows. "Now sit down on the bed". "Now lay back,... Oh!, wait, here are some pillows for behind your arms ...this is good".
She sat on the bed by my head and said, "Before I begin, I want you to know that what I am about to do is something that I can only do one time for a person, and I can only do it a few times in my lifetime.". Then she began to speak softly in Hindi, almost chanting. I started to speak, but she placed a finger on my lips. "Silence", she whispered, and returned to the intonations. After a few minutes I began to get sleepy and I had trouble holding my eyes open, she nodded at me as they fluttered open, closed, open, closed So dark ... heavy ... dark .. heavy ......
I awoke to her kiss on my lips, I opened my eyes, somehow she seemed bigger. I felt a little strange like something was changed. I was still lying on the bed on my back, with my wrists bound, but something felt different. She said, "There I have made the change for you, this will last about 3 hours, then you will fall asleep and awaken as your normal self".
"What..." <wait a second, whose voice was that, very high pitched>. "Wa..." <That's me speaking>. "What has happened? Why is my voice changed?".
She kissed me again, "I have used a very very old enchantment, taught to my by my grandmother, and to her by hers and so forth, for many generations, for as long as it lasts you are a woman of India. Take a look at yourself". And she held up a mirror to me.
Looking back was a handsome Indian woman, her skin was a medium olive, Jet black eyes and hair. Wide full lips under a strong nose. I looked down and saw that my bust was small, but seemed well shaped.
"Let me help you up. Be quite careful, you are now several inches shorter than you were." She helped me to sit up, then stand. She was now taller than I, I looked up at her, and felt her hand strong on my arm. She leaned down and wispered in my ear, "You are quite beautiful now, my dear, come let me finish your jewelry". She led me to the vanity table and sat me on the chair. Opening the jewelry case she began to remove chains, earrings and other items. First she attached a Diamond stud through my right nostril, it was already pierced, then she attached a large crescent of silver and small sapphires to my left nostril, with a heavy chain leading to my right ear. Heavy Silver and sapphire earings were attached to both ears. She took a brush and began to brush my long thick hair. She quickly attached clips in the back to hold it in a single piece hanging down my back. I could feel it on my bound arms.
"Could..."
Again she placed a finger on my mouth, "Silence still, my small one".
She removed a complex piece of jewelry consisting of about eight or nine strands of pearls and sapphires, and holding the center agains my hairline in front, she began to attach it to my hair. After a few minutes she stepped back so that I could see in the mirror A large sapphire was at the part of my hair at the hairline, hanging down was a huge teardrop-shaped pearl, reaching almost to my eyebrows. Three strands of pearls and sapphires framed my face, like a hair-band clipped to my hair. Another strand ran straight back to disappear in the back, I could feel it attached to the top hair clip in back. From my left ear a heavy silver chain ran from a large earing to the ornament on my left nostril. I was stunned, "How beautiful she is", I thought.
Rani leaned forward and kissed me again. "So lovely, so helpless". She caressed my bound arms, then brought her hand up, and cupped my chin up, and kissed me again. "Get up now, and walk around to feel what a real woman walks like."
I waved my arms a few inches, a mute question.
"No, I do not think that it is the time yet to release you, but please walk now".
I walked, slowly at first around the room. Everything felt strange, the weight of my breasts, the fact that my center of Gravity had shifted down a few inches. My hips were, relatively, much wider, and my legs seem to point in a somewhat different direction that I was used to. All in all it was very strange. Add to that the fact that with every step, the Sari clung and flowed like a living hobble, limiting me to very short steps, and making me put each foot directly in from of the other. This caused my hips to sway, alluringly, from side to side, I could feel my long thick black hair swaying in counterpoint across my tightly bound arms.
After several minutes of walking, just as I was beginning to get the hang of it she said, "Now come over to the bed, I wish to introduce you to something of the pleasure that women get. That is right just lay back, dearest". She pulled a pillow behind me and lay me back, with the pillow under my shoulders, neck, and head.
She leaned over me and placed one hand on my waist, the other behind my head lifting it gently she began kissing my face, along the chain, and my ears. I felt a warm tingle in my belly, that rapidly spread down to my groin. I kissed her back. Her other hand began to move slowly down my leg, then back up, past my waist, toward my breast. It paused and I trembled, then she cupped my breast in her hand and rubbed her thumb across the nipple, now quite visible through its silken coverings.
It felt like a jolt of lightning connected my nipple with my groin. I gasped and my body jerked. She smiled at me, "I think that you are going to enjoy this". And then she reached up and unpined my sari from my blouse. Reaching behind me she grabbed the blouse at the bottom and pulled it apart, the snaps went pop, pop poppity pop pop. Taking the bottom of the blouse she pulled out, then up, freeing my breasts from their covering. Immediately her mouth went to one nipple and her hand to the other. I jerked like a million volts had passed through my body. "Ahaaaaaaa". She lifted her head. "You must be silent, if you make one more sound, I must gag you!"
"Please," I moaned, "I don't think that I can be quiet if you keep doing that, but don't stop, please".
She reached over to the night stand and took a rubber ball and said, "Open your mouth, my dear". Then popped the ball in as my mouth opened. Two quick strips of tape and I was silenced.
She returned to my nipples, every time that she pulled, or nibbled, or sucked, or did anything to them it was like a flash of hot lightning passed through my body. I was panting through my nose and moaning into the gag, when she sucked really hard on one, and pulled up on the other. BOOM I went off like a 500 pound bomb. Wow, about 30 seconds later I came back down from heaven, and I realized that she hadn't stopped, Ka-BOOM, Again!!, So this is what it means to be multi-orgasmic (I am now certifiably jealous of women, if you have orgasms like that all the time, It Ain't Fair). After I came back from that she said, "and now for a few more thrills".
She helped me to wiggle around on the bed so that I was lying the long way, then she buckled a collar around my heck, under my hair. The collar was attached to the head of the bead by a strap which she pulled tight. Then she attached a strap to each ankle. "I don't wish to get crushed". Each strap went to the bedpost holding my legs apart.
She got up, and walked to the foot of the bed, then crawled between my legs. Looking up over my belly she said, "You're just going to love this", and leaned down. First she pulled my sari up, a little at a time, running her hands along the insides of my calves, then as the sari went higher my thighs. Soon she was at the junction. Producing a pair of shears she quickly removed my panties. Straining against the collar all I could see was the top of her head (over my breasts and the jewelry across my face). I felt her breath on places that I didn't even know what they were, hot like the wind off the desert it was, and when it passed, the tissues were suddenly cool. Suddenly I felt something hot and wet dart in and touch <OHHHH!> something the out and the coolness of evaporation, then again hot HOT! Steady, quick, please PLEASE oh Oh OH OH!! AH! . As I came back down I felt something hard pressing against my groin, and my groin opening to make way as it made entered, larger, firmer, "OH!", I struggled to press down against it. I opened my eyes and saw hers looking back, dancing over a grin of pure joy.
"Do you like this, my dear?", and the thing moved in further.
"Mmmm", my head bobbed up and down <Wheeee!!>.
Fuller and fuller, <My god I'm going to burst, oh! Oh! OH!!>. It stops, then begins to move in and out , and to move up and down and sideways.
"Mmmm!", My hips buck up and down, pumping against it. In and out, so big, so hard <OH OH OH AGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!> My body is pumping and trashing and straining agains its bonds. I scream into the gag. "Mmmm....." and collapse, spent.
Hours later, or so it seems I open my eyes and Rani is standing there. She reaches down and pulls the blouse down covering my breasts. "It is time now, for you to pay for the fun that you just had, but I think that I can make this almost as much fun for you as that was". She released my ankles and removed the collar, then helped me to stand.
"Turn around, my dear, so that I can make you presentable again".
Deftly she twitched my blouse into place and snapped it closed again.
In the mirror I saw a pair of pretty Indian women, one in red and gold the other in blue and sliver. One tightly bound gagged and helpless, one free and in control.
"Come along, pretty one." She reached up a grabbed the chain from my ear to my nose, and took off for the front room. Needless to say I followed her right along.
Into the living room where the loft balcony had been prepaired. Hanging from it was a thick rope attached to a block and tackle, at the end of the rope was a slip knot. Holding my bound arms firmly she steered me under the end of the rope. She flipped the noose around my neck, and pulled it snugly behind my neck. Then she stepped away, "Do you want to remain gagged?" she asked.
I though about it for a few seconds then nodded.
"All right". She pulled a small three legged step-stool up and motioned me to step back. I did, and she put the stool directly under the pulleys. "Step right up".
"Mmm?"
"Oh, Yes, I did promise didn't I? Close your eyes please".
I heard noises behind me, then she was pulling my Sari up, I felt something pressing at my opening again, large and insistent. I spread my knees to help it enter, and felt the noose pull gently at my neck, a promise of more to come. It slipped in, and I felt her reach behind and pull a strap around my waist on each side. Then she was buckling the strap around my hips, and pulling another up in front. Something was pressing on the front, just above the opening an inch or so. Mmmm that felt nice.
HUMMMZZZZ OH!! MY! quiet again. What ever it was it sure felt good with the whole thing wobbling and wiggling. My sari fell into place and once again I looked like a respectable Indian woman, except that there was a noose around my neck, and I was bound and gagged.
"Please step up". I did, and she pulled on the pulley until the noose was snug, then some more, until it was a bit tight. My breath was beginning to rasp just a bit. Over to the cleat on the wall, and the rope was tied off. She walked back in front of me, smiled up at me and said, "Actually I think that you will hang yourself this time", and pressed just below the buckle under my sari.
HUMMMZZZZ OH!, I jerked forward, and the noose went tight. Gack I straightened up, rasp. More twitches as the sensations down below became more on more uncontrolible. I looked in the mirror, the woman in blue and silver was bucking her hips back and forward, the noose jerking tighter with each jerk, suddenly she gave a loud Mmmphph and kicked her feet. The stool underneath her feet shot across the room and the rope jerked tight. My feet began to wave around trying to find something to push on to release the pressure around my throat. There was no air in my lungs, it all went with the scream. The device kept churning and my body was twitching inside and thrashing outside and the sari was tangling my feet and my arms were tightly bound, the noose was tight, my vagina full, it was big and moving and rubbing my clit. Gack... And for a moment all was still and quiet, and then it all came around again and E V E R Y T H I N G was J U S T R I G H T, and I was helpless and I was really a woman, and she was hanging me, and my twat was full of something that wiggled and moved just so, and it rubbed my clit just right, and I screamed as loud as I could and no sound came out as the noose tightened more... and everything faded away to black.
And I came to on the floor, looking up at the noose hanging above me. Rani was leaning over me, and I reached up (she's untied me) and pulled he down to me and kissed (and ungagged me) her. And thanked her, again and again. She helped me up, (everything was gone from inside too), and the helped me to stagger over to the couch. We sat an discussed the incident for a few minutes, then she said 'Well I had better do my part while you are still awake, we only have about a half an hour'. And she got up. And walked over to the noose.
"Wait a minute", I said, "You are supposed to hang yourself, right?".
"Oh, yes, this is correct".
"Well why not make it like a real suicide? I mean it won't be any worse right?"
"Well... yes, I guess".
"All right then do it this way", and I told her my plan.
She climbed up the ladder to the loft and pulled the pulleys up, then made a overhand knot in the heavy rope, which she attached around the post. She dropped the rope down again, and climbed down. (What a view).
The she pulled the stool and a chair together under the noose, and went to the kitchen and got a sharp knife, which she handed to me. She climed up on the stool, then up to the chair. Standing on the chair she made a slip knot in the rope, and tried to get her head through it. "Too high", she pulled the knot out, and retied it further down the rope, this time it went right over her head, she pulled her hair from under it, and then stepped down to the stool. The noose was still a little loose, but it was clear that she would not reach the floor. I stepped up to her and raised my arm, I could easily reach the rope with the knife.
"OK, I'm ready, when do you want me to cut you down?".
"I'm afraid that I'll ask you to cut me down too soon, so no matter what I say, please leave me hanging until I'm unconscious, or for 4 minutes, which ever comes first".
"OK, but you'll never last 4 minutes".
"You'd be surprised". Then she kicked over the chair. It fell way out of her reach, no help there. She moved the noose around so the the knot was behind her right ear, and it would tighten toward the back. Then she looked at the clock. "Until 10:20", I looked at the clock, it was just 10:16, as I looked back, she leaned a little on the noose, put her hands at her side, and rocked forwards on the stool. Pow, over it went, and as she fell forwards a few inches her feet just naturally kicked it several feet away. Her hands went immediately to her neck, trying to get under the rope, but it was already too tight for that. She was still breathing, "gurggle rasp gurggle". Her feet reached down, straining for the floor, then waved in circles out and around. She was dancing for me, dancing at the end of a rope. Then she swung her feet around and her entire body turned around, towards the stool, lying tantalizingly just out of reach, her feet reached out, but her body swing away from the stool, leaving here feet about as far away as before. They kicked towards the stool, but all this did was tighten the noose further around her pretty neck, her body swung back around. As she went by her hands reach out towards me, pleading. I shook my head "no", I felt my hair move along my back. I reached up and felt my breast. Interesting. I looked at the clock. 10:17:30. I looked back at her. She had turned back to me again, she reached up and took the rope above her head with both hands and tried to pull up, she did manage to get a little slack, and gasped in and then croaked "Please, it hurts", then her arms could no longer support her, and she dropped to the end of the rope (I almost cut her down then, but she did say to wait). 10:18. She paniced then, he feet waved in wide circles, kicking around and up and down, the noose got tighter, her face turned dark reddish purple and her hands fell to her sides (10:19). She was still, her dance was over, and time was up. I stepped up, and lifted her belly with my left shoulder as I cut the rope with my right hand. She fell over my back, and I placed the knife on the Highboy as a carried her to the bedroom. Her breathing as was fast but steady, as if she had just run a race. Well in a way she had, a race with death, and she won.
We remained lovers for the rest of the school year (6 more months). Her folks came from India to see her, I got along just fine with her father. He was a former Rashander-Major (I'm sure that I got that wrong) in the Indian Army (that is the British Indian army), and was at that time a semi-major big-wig in the Indian MOD. He and I spent several evenings over tea swapping stories about dumb junior officers and the problems that they could cause the noncoms until they were trained. Her mother on the other hand did not think that I was at all suitable for her little baby (Hum some baby, nudge nudge, wink wink)- personaly I suspect that she had been busy brokering a marriage for her in India (that is the normal thing there). In any case although her father had broadly hinted, that a Commission was to be had (on the basis of a BS Degree and 2 years of combat experience) as a dowry for his little girl, mother came right out and said that she wasn't having her little girl marry some goy (well that's not the exact wording, but I think that it covers the picture). In the event she returned to India with them (having gotten her Masters in the mean time, don't ask me when she found time to study). We exchanged postcards and birthday cards for many years, even after I was married. Until she send one last letter, she was getting married to a Mr. K. P. Roy (a fine upstanding C-O-I party member, and probably a pukka wallah), and she didn't think that -given the nature of politics in India- it would be a real great idea for us to correspond any more, she wished me luck and many children, and happiness. There were small round water stains on the letter. All my mail to her was returned marked, No longer at this address. Wherever she is, I wish her health, a long and happy life, and I thank her again from the bottom of my heart.